The readings from Ch. 7 in the Tompkins book explain the importance of obtaining well-developed vocabulary skills. In the readings, they explained how vocabulary words can be divided into roughly three different categories, Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Tier one represents basic vocabulary that includes all of the high frequency words. Tier 2 is academic words that are not as widely known in everyday school activities. Lastly, Tier 3 represents specialized words that are often learned through readings, and conversations outside of school. Using my literacy circle book "Stargirl", I was able to come up with some examples of each of these vocabulary words from chapter 12.
Tier 1: place, stage, cahir, music, laughing, seat
Tier 2: communication, questions, faculty, advisor
Tier 3: jury, verdict, broadcast, mastero, pantomime
Out of the three categories, I believe the Tier 3 would be the most important to focus on. Even though students may not need use for these words in their everyday vernacular, in order to fully understanding this chapter, many of those words cannot be figured out by using context clues. I believe that in order to get the full mental image and understanding of the chapter, students should focus on the higher level words. This will also challenge their thinking, and hopefully motivate them to search for more words to look up and expand their vocabularies.
Mini-Lesson
Introduction: Tell students we are going to learn some more about vocabulary using the book "Stargirl".
Objective: (1)Expanding student't vocabulary skills is important in order to become better speakers, readers, and writers.
(2)Students will also gain a deeper understand of the text by being challenged to learn new words.
Building prior knowledge: Students will be asked to list examples of basic, academic, and specialized words. The teacher will explain how they fit into three Tiered categories
Model: Using chapter 12, the teacher will go through the book and list some examples of the three categories.
Instruction: The students will be partnered up to come up with a list of each 6 words in each of the Tiered categories using chapter 13 of "Stargirl". They will either explain to eachother, or look up in the dictionary the meaning of unknown words. Then individually, the students will each choose one word from the Tier 3 list to create a word poster. The word poster needs to include the word of their choice, the definition in their own words, and an example of the word used in a sentence.
Assessment: Students will set their posters up around the room to have a gallery walk.
Closing Discussion: The students will talk about what they learned about the different levels of vocabulary words, drawing on what they learned from their research process. Students will also talk about the importance of vocabulary.
Christy, I think your lesson plan is great for having students learn some of the Tier 3 words in Stargirl. I like that you a planning on having the students find their own words as they match up to the three tiers. That way they are exploring themselves and realizing what they do or do not know, rather than simply letting the teacher decide that. For the purpose of this lesson I think it would be helpful for students to not only find a definition of the word they don't know, but also talk about it as it relates to the story. They might talk about how it helped them further understand or comprehend the text, since that is the main goal of learning new vocabulary. Also, depending on the amount of time spent working with this book and the grade level, it might be fun to make a mini-word wall for this book in which you can add the new vocabulary discovered on the wall so students can revisit it later.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Caitlin, this lesson plan is great! Good job Christy! The fact that the students are picking their own vocabulary words will be very beneficial to their learning and understanding what they do and do not know. Like Caitlin said, I would have the students talk about the definition that they found for the word with their group. They could also talk about it in the context of Stargirl. This could help them realize that there are multiple definitions for certain words. In addition to the mini word wall that Caitlin suggested, I think it might be beneficial for the students as a reading group to maybe put together a glossary of terms for the book Stargirl. They could keep it with them for future reference or it could be kept in the classroom for future students to use as reference.
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